LTE Functionalities and Features

Overview
Module Objectives

• After completing this module, the participant should be able to Describe and
Discuss:
• Long Term Evolution (LTE) Radio Network and it's interfaces
• RRM functionalities
• Feature Overviews
LTE Air Interface Features Overview

TX RX
Fast Link Adaptation 64QAM MIMO Advanced Scheduling
due to channel behavior Modulation Tx Channel Rx Time & Freq.

scalable Short TTI = 1 ms

Transmission time
interval

ARQ Automatic
Repeat Request
DL: OFDMA
UL: SC-FDMA

OFDM is the state-of-the-art and most efficient and robust air interface
 OFDM Basics

• Transmits hundreds or even thousands of separately modulated radio

signals using orthogonal subcarriers spread across a wideband channel
Total transmission bandwidth

15 kHz in LTE: fixed

Orthogonality:

The peak ( centre

frequency) of one
subcarrier …

…intercepts the
‘nulls’ of the
neighbouring
subcarriers
OFDM Basics

- Data is sent in parallel across the set of subcarriers, each subcarrier only
transports a part of the whole transmission
- The throughput is the sum of the data rates of each individual (or used)
subcarriers while the power is distributed to all used subcarriers
- FFT ( Fast Fourier Transform) is used to create the orthogonal subcarriers. The
number of subcarriers is determined by the FFT size ( by the bandwidth)
Power bandwidth

frequency
OFDM Basics
• Pros: – Best technique for wireless systems: high spectral efficiency and
little interference between channels.
– Robust in multi-path environments thanks to Cyclic Prefix
– Frequency domain scheduling offer high potential for throughput
gain
• Cons:
– Severe High PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio)
– Small subcarrier spacing makes it more sensitive to frequency
offset ( subcarriers may interfere each others)
• OFDMA Operation:
Transmitted frequency spectrum:

Modulation Total channel bandwidth Demodulation

Modulation Demodulation
S/ IFF CP FF P/
CP Re-moval
P T T S

Modulation Demodulation
Transmitter structure Receiver structure
OFDM and Multipath
- Multipath causes Inter Symbol Interference ( ISI) which affects the subcarrier
orthogonality due to phase distortion
- Solution to avoid ISI is to introduce a Guard Period ( Tg) after the pulse
• Tg needs to be long enough to capture all the delayed multipath signals
- To make use of that Tg (no transmission) Cyclic Prefix is transmitted

2
1
3
Time Domain 4
Ts Tg

time
When the delay 2
spread of the multi-
path is greater than time
the guard period 3
duration (Tg) there is
inter-symbol time
interference (ISI) 4

time
 Cyclic Prefix (CP) and Guard Time
• Consists in copying the last part of a symbol shape for a duration of guard-time
and attaching it in front of the symbol
• CP needs to be longer than the channel multipath delay spread.
• A receiver typically uses the high correlation between the Cyclic Prefix (CP) and
the last part of the following symbol to locate the start of the symbol and begin
then with decoding
• 2 CP options in LTE:
– Normal CP: for small cells or with short multipath delay spread
– Extended CP: designed for use with large cells or those with long delay profiles
total symbol time T(s)
Note: CP represents an
Guard Time overhead resulting in symbol
T(g) rate reduction.
CP ratio reduces the
bandwidth efficiency but the
benefits in terms of minimizing
the ISI compensate for it
t
CP Useful symbol
T(g) time T(b)
OFDMA Parameters

- Channel bandwidth: Bandwidths ranging from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz

- Data subcarriers: They vary with the bandwidth
• 72 for 1.4MHz to 1200 for 20MHz
OFDMA Parameters
- Frame duration: 10ms created from slots and subframes
- Subframe duration ( TTI): 1 ms ( composed of 2x0.5slots)
- Subcarrier spacing: Fixed to 15kHz ( 7.5 kHz defined for MBMS)
- Sampling Rate: Varies with the bandwidth but always factor or
multiple of 3.84 to ensure compatibility with
WCDMA by using common clocking

1.4MHz 3 MHz 5 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz

Frame Duration 1010ms

ms

Subcarrier Spacing 15 kHz

Sampling Rate ( MHz) 1.92 3.84 7.68 15.36 23.04 30.72

Data Subcarriers 72 180 300 600 900 1200

Symbols/slot Normal CP=7, extended CP=6

CP length Normal CP=4.69/5.21 μsec., extended CP= 16.67μsec.

 Peak-to-Average Power Ratio in OFDM

•The transmitted power is the sum of

the powers of all the subcarriers

- Due to large number of

subcarriers, the peak to average
power ratio (PAPR) tends to have
a large range
- The higher the peaks, the greater
the range of power levels over
which the transmitter is required
to work.
- Not best suited for use with
mobile ( battery-powered) devices

- Solution?
-> see next slide
 SC-FDMA in UL

- Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple

Access: Transmission technique used for Uplink
• Variant of OFDM that reduces the PAPR:
• Combines the PAR of single-carrier system with the
multipath resistance and flexible subcarrier

OFDMA
SC-FDMA
frequency allocation offered by OFDM.
• It can reduce the PAPR between 6…9dB compared
to OFDMA
• TS36.201 and TS36.211 provide the mathematical
description of the time domain representation of an
SC-FDMA symbol.
- Reduced PAPR means lower RF hardware
requirements ( power amplifier)
- SC-FDMA will be used for both FDD and TDD
modes
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison (1/2)

- OFDMA transmits data in parallel across multiple subcarriers

- SC-FDMA transmits data in series employing multiple subcarriers
- In the example:
• OFDMA: 6 modulation symbols ( 01,10,11,01,10 and 10) are transmitted
per OFDMA symbol, one on each subcarrier
• SC-FDMA: 6 modulation symbols are transmitted per SC-FDMA symbol
using all subcarriers per modulation symbol. The duration of each
modulation symbol is 1/6th of the modulation symbol in OFDMA

OFDMA SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison (2/2)
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison
Difference in transmission: for SC-FDMA there is an extra block on
the transmission chain: the FFT (or DFT = Discrete Fourier
Transform) block which should “spread” the input modulation symbols
over all the allocated subcarriers
FFT or DFT (Discrete
Fourier Transform)

OFDM SC-FDMA Transmission

Transmission
 Uplink Air Interface Technology
SC-FDMA
- User multiplexing in frequency domain ( in OFDMA the user multiplexing is in
sub-carrier domain)
• One user always continuous in frequency
- Smallest uplink bandwidth, 12 subcarriers: 180 kHz (same for OFDMA in
downlink)
- Largest uplink bandwidth: 20 MHz (same for OFDMA in downlink)
• Terminals are required to be able to receive & transmit up to 20 MHz, depending on
the frequency band though

Receiver

User 1 f

other users interference

f localized in frequency

User 2 f
 Resource Block and Resource Element

- Resource Block (RB):

• 12 consecutive subcarriers in frequency domain x 1 slot
period in time domain. • Capacity allocation is based
on Resource Blocks
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Subcarrier
12
• Resource Element (RE):
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
– 1 subcarrier x 1 symbol period
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
– Theoretical minimum capacity
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 allocation unit.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 – 1 RE is the equivalent of 1 modulation
180 KHz

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
symbol on a subcarrier, i.e. 2 bits for
QPSK, 4 bits for 16QAM and 6 bits for
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 64QAM.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Subcarrier 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1
1 slot 1 slot Resource
Element
1 ms subframe
 Physical Resource Blocks

12 subcarriers
•In both the downlink and uplink
.. ..
direction, data is allocated to
Frequency users in terms of resource

Resource 1 ms subframe
blocks (RBs).
block or TTI
•A resource block consists of 12
consecutive subcarriers in the
0.5 ms slot
frequency domain, that are
reserved for the duration of one
Time
During each TTI, 0.5 millisecond time slot.
resource blocks for
different UEs are •The smallest resource unit a
scheduled in the scheduler can assign to a user is
eNodeB
a scheduling block which
consists of two consecutive
resource blocks
OFDMA and SC-FDMA in LTE
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison – Summary

SC-FDMA and OFDMA SC-FDMA and OFDMA

Commonalities differences
The same Variable Bandwidth
• OFDMA transmits several
BW = 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 MHz
modulation symbols in parallel
• SC-FDMA transmits only one
The same subcarrier spacing
single modulation symbol at a
Δf = 15KHz
time
The same symbol duration
Tsymbol = 66,7μs
• SC-FDMA is having an extra
block on the transmission chain to
The same Cyclic Prefix length
spread the modulation symbols
Normal CP = 4.69/5.12μsec
over all the subcarriers
Extended CP = 16.67μsec

The same TTI = 1ms

•SC-FDMA is having a lower
PAPAR = Peak to Average Power
The same frame format
Ratio than OFDMA
Could be used for FDD and
TDD
LTE/EPC Network Elements
Main references to architecture in 3GPP specs.: TS23.401,TS23.402,TS36.300

Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

HSS
eNB
Mobility
Management
Entity Policy &
S6a Charging Rule
Function
MME S10
X2
S7 Rx+
PCRF
S11

S1-U S5/S8 SGi

PDN
LTE-Uu Serving PDN
Evolved Node B
Gateway Gateway
(eNB)
LTE-UE
S-GW /P-GW

HSS: Home Subscriber Server

LTE Radio Interface and the X2 Interface
.. User PDUs
LTE-Uu interface
(E)-RRC User PDUs
• Air interface of LTE
PDCP
• Based on OFDMA in DL and SC-FDMA in
RLC TS 36.300 UL
MAC
• FDD and TDD duplex methods
LTE-L1 (FDD/TDD-OFDMA/SC-FDMA) eNB
• Scalable bandwidth 1.4MHz to currently
20 MHz
LTE-Uu
X2 interface
X2-UP
(User Plane)
• Inter eNB interface
X2-CP
(Control Plane)
• X2AP: special signaling protocol
User PDUs
• Functionalities:
TS 36.423 X2-AP GTP-U
X2 – For an inter- eNB HO to facilitate
SCTP UDP TS 36.424 handover and provide data forwarding.
TS 36.422
IP IP – In RRM to provide e.g. load information
TS 36.421 L1/L2 L1/L2 TS 36.421 to neighboring eNBs to facilitate
interference management
– Logical interface: It does not need direct
TS 36.420 site-to-site connection, i.e. it can be
routed via core network as well
eNB
UDP: User Datagram Protocol ( L4 Transport Layer) . Similar to TCP but only provides connectionless service.
S1-MME & S1-U Interfaces
S1 interface is divided into two parts: S1-MME
(Control Plane)

S1-MME interface NAS Protocols

MME
• Control interface between eNB and TS 36.413 S1-AP
MME TS 36.412 SCTP
• S1AP:S1 Application Protocol IP
• MME and UE will exchange non- eNB L1/L2 TS 36.411
access stratum signaling via eNB
S1-U
through this interface ( i.e. (User Plane)
authentication, tracking area updates)
User PDUs

GTP-U Serving
TS 36.414 Gateway
UDP
S1-U interface
IP
• User plane interface between eNB and
serving gateway TS 36.411 L1/L2

• Pure user data interface (U=User plane)

TS 36.410
[currently in TS 36.300 §19]
Physical Layer Technologies
FDD Carrier Number of
Bandwidth Resource Blocks
- Downlink: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency [MHz]
Division Multiple Access). 1.4 6

3 15
- Uplink: SC-FDMA (Single-Carrier Frequency
Division Multiple Access). 5 25

10 50
- Both FDD and TDD modes available.
15 75

- Subcarrier spacing 15 kHz. 20 100

- Scalable bandwidth.
Note: All bandwidth variants are supported by FL16.
 Based upon
Exercise - Theoretical RB Capacity 3GPP TS 36.211
(normal cyclic prefix case)

Resource Block (RB)

12 subcarriers

• Basic unit of resource

(180 kHz)

• 12 subcarriers wide in the frequency domain

• 7 symbols long in the time domain
• Thus, 84 symbols per resource block

• Bit Rate per Resource Block depends upon

7 symbols modulation scheme
(0.5 ms)

Bit Rates per Symbol rate = 168 ksps

Resource Block • QPSK => 2 bits per symbol => 336 kbps
• 16QAM => 4 bits per symbol => 672 kbps
TTI is 1 ms, i.e.
duration of 2 • 64QAM => 6 bits per symbol => 1.008 Mbps
resource blocks
Exercise - Theoretical LTE Bit Rates - Downlink
• Bit Rates per Resource Block  Number of Resource Blocks

Figures in Mbps Channel Bandwidth

1.4 MHz 3 MHz 5 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
QPSK 2.016 5.040 8.400 16.800 25.200 33.600
16QAM 4.032 10.080 16.800 33.600 50.400 67.200
64QAM 6.048 15.120 25.200 50.400 75.600 100.800

64QAM (2×2 MIMO) 12.096 30.240 50.400 100.800 151.200 201.600

64QAM (4×4 MIMO) 24.192 60.480 100.800 201.600 302.400 403.200

• These bit rates are applicable to the bottom of the Physical Layer, i.e.
coding rate has not been taken into account
• Also requirement to account for the overheads generated by Reference and
Synchronization Signals + other Physical Channels
LTE Peak Layer 1 Data Rates
• Downlink: Peak Rate 172 Mbps with 2x2 MIMO and 20 MHz

Modulation coding 1.4 MHz 3.0 MHz 5.0 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
QPSK 1/2 Single stream 0.7 2.1 3.5 7.0 10.6 14.1
16QAM 1/2 Single stream 1.4 4.1 7.0 14.1 21.2 28.3
16QAM 3/4 Single stream 2.2 6.2 10.5 21.1 31.8 42.4
64QAM 3/4 Single stream 3.3 9.3 15.7 31.7 47.7 63.6
64QAM 4/4 Single stream 4.3 12.4 21.0 42.3 63.6 84.9
64QAM 3/4 2x2 MIMO 6.6 18.9 31.9 64.3 96.7 129.1
64QAM 1/1 2x2 MIMO 8.8 25.3 42.5 85.7 128.9 172.1
64QAM 1/1 4x4 MIMO 16.6 47.7 80.3 161.9 243.5 325.1
• Uplink: Peak Rate 57 Mbps with 20 MHz and 16QAM

Modulation coding 1.4 MHz 3.0 MHz 5.0 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
QPSK 1/2 Single stream 0.7 2.0 3.5 7.1 10.8 14.3
16QAM 1/2 Single stream 1.4 4.0 6.9 14.1 21.6 28.5
16QAM 3/4 Single stream 2.2 6.0 10.4 21.2 32.4 42.8
16QAM 1/1 Single stream 2.9 8.1 13.8 28.2 43.2 57.0
64QAM 3/4 Single stream 3.2 9.1 15.6 31.8 48.6 64.2
64QAM 1/1 Single stream 4.3 12.1 20.7 42.3 64.8 85.5
64QAM 1/1 V-MIMO (cell) 8.6 24.2 41.5 84.7 129.6 171.1
LTE UE Categories
• All categories support 20 MHz
• 64QAM mandatory in downlink, but not in uplink (except Class 5 and 8)
• 2x2 or higher MIMO mandatory in classes in Classes >1
• Class 6, 7 & 8 added for R10

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Class 8

Peak rate 10/5 Mbps 50/25 100/50 150/50 299/75 301/50 301/102 3000/1500
DL/UL Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps
RF 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz
bandwidth
Modulation 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM
DL
Modulation 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM 64QAM 16QAM 16QAM 64QAM
UL
Rx diversity Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

MIMO DL Optional 2x2 2x2 2x2 4x4 2x2 or 4x4 2x2 or 4x4 8x8
LTE-Advanced:
First features standardized in 3GPP Release10
Key aspects in • Carrier Bandwidth extension by carrier aggregation
Carrier Aggregation
3GPP Rel.10 • Downlink: Up to 100 MHz bandwidth with 2 Release 8
….. carriers from different frequency bands
Carrier1 Carrier2 Carrier n • Uplink: Only single band carrier aggregation

8x MIMO 4x • New codebook for downlink (DL) 8TX MIMO

• Feedback enhancements for DL 2TX/4TX Multiuser MIMO
• 2TX/4TX Uplink Single/Multiuser MIMO
Coordinated Multipoint
• Coordinated multipoint transmission (CoMP), also
known as cooperative system
• Receiving transmission from multiple sectors (not
necessary visible for UE)
Relaying

• Single Relay Node architecture based on self-backhauling eNB

Heterogeneous
networks • Simple intercell interference coordination in time domain
• Enhancements for office Femto handovers
RRM Framework
Scope of RRM:
Management and optimized utilization of the (scarce) radio resources:
• Provision for each service/bearer/user an adequate QoS (if applicable)
• Increasing the overall radio network capacity and optimizing quality

UE scope: Handover control, power control, Adaptive Modulation and Coding,

outer link quality control, MIMO

Cell scope: Radio Admission Control, Congestion Control

eNode B scope: Packet Scheduler (cell scope for simpler implementation)

RAN scope: Load Balancing

Multi-RAT scope: Interworking with GSM/EDGE, UMTS and CDMA2000, inter-

RAT HO
RRM Framework
Functional Description of the different RRM Modules
• Radio Admission Control : Admission control will be in charge of deciding
when new users (or mobility users) are allowed to establish bearers in the cell
• Handover control: Is in charge of the mobility control within the LTE RRM.
Based on UE reported events it will select the appropriate target cell for HO
and initiate mobility procedures.
• Packet Scheduler: Is in charge of UL and DL scheduling every TTI and
resource allocation. PS will decide which users are scheduled on a TTI basis,
the location and the amount of resources allocated to each user.
• AMC (OLQC, OLLA): AMC will perform link adaptation tasks to ensure radio
resources are used in the most efficient way possible.
• MIMO: This module is in charge of selecting whether Transmit diversity, Spatial
multiplexing or dynamic switching between previous two modes will be
employed for every user based on UE feedback
• Power control: For DL it will be a semi static configuration but for UL RRM will
provide feedback for closed loop power control to reduce UL interference.
RRM Framework: Time Scale of RRM Functions
Time Scale
Traffic, Channel and 100 s Radio Admission Control
Location Variations

Call Connection Mobility Control

Duration Layer 3
10 s
Load Balancing , Congestion Control RRM
Interhandover
Time
1s

UE
L3 Signaling Slow UL DRX/DTX
Delay Power Control Dynamic Control
100 ms (open/closed Slow UL LA/AMC, MIMO
Burst or Packet Loop) Slow UL ATB Control
Duration
Outer Link Quality Control (OLQC)
Channel 10 ms Layer 2
Fading RRM
Time Fast DL AMC

LTE TTI 1 ms Packet Scheduling (UL/DL), fast ATB

ATB = Adaptive Transmission Bandwidth
FDD-LTE Roadmap
LTE Advanced

Themes Available 2015 2016 2017+

• Carrier Aggregation
• Carrier Aggregation 60 4/5CC • Carrier Aggregation 6+
• Carrier Aggregation 40
MHz • DL 256 QAM CC
MHz
User Experience • Carrier Aggregation • UL Carrier Aggregation • Internet of Things
• Nominal Bitrate
TDD/FDD* • DL Single-User MIMO • Device2Device
• RLF triggered handover
• eMBMS 4x4 • LTE-WLAN aggregation
• Public Safety

• UL Multi-User MIMO
• DL/UL CoMP • Network Assisted
4RX
• InterRAT Load Interference
Radio Efficiency • eICIC / FeICIC • DL CoMP Dynamic
balancing Cancelation
• Interference Aware UL Point Selection
Lowest cost per GB • Inter eNodeB CA • LTE-U
Power Control • Data Session Profiling
• Enhanced MIMO

• Automatic Neighbor
• Advanced Mobility
Recognition • Intelligent Parameter
Operational • HetNet optimization Robustness
• Minimization of Drive Set Activation
• Energy efficiency Optimization
Excellence Test • Capacity and
• Antenna Rx RF-Sniffing • Network extension w/o
• Mobility Robustness Coverage optimization
service interruption
Optimization

• Extended Connectivity
• Dual Radio Antenna • Next Generation Site
with Multilayer • Next Generation Radio
System Solutions
Site Solutions Configurations
• Flexi Metro RRHs • IP v4/v6 Parallel
Solutions
• Flexi RF Module 6TX • Active Antenna System
• Dual-band radio Operation
• IPv6 C/U-Plane

Note: * limited availability in 2015